


Home

by engels



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: First Time, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 01:56:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11910828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/engels/pseuds/engels
Summary: Friends build houses, but lovers build homes.





	Home

Metal scraped against ceramic as Josh herded the last bite of potato onto his fork with his finger. From across two water glasses and a napkin holder, Tyler picked a fine bone from his salmon and wiped it on the side of his plate. Josh ate, Tyler pinched a napkin and cleaned his fingers, and the wall clock ticked.

“Thought you hated that.” Josh asked. After several minutes of loaded silence while they had their mouths full, his voice sounded too loud, even to his own ears.

Tyler looked up from where he was clumsily tearing apart a bite of fish. “What?”

“The uh, the ticking.” Josh waved his fork—an indication of nothing. “I thought you hated the sound of clocks ticking.”

“I do, but if I’m not trying to sleep over it, I can deal with it.” Tyler let out a short laugh. “Do you know how quiet it would be in here without it?”

“Dude, we’re eating, it’s fine if it’s not like, conversation every second,” Josh defended, taking a sip from his glass. “I think the ticking actually makes it seem quieter.” 

Shrug. “Everything echoes. Are you done with that?” Dropping his own silverware onto his plate, Tyler stood, pushing his chair back against the hardwood. Josh did the same, opting to stand as he passed his plate to Tyler with a nod. It felt cold to stay sitting, impersonal, like he was dining alone in a restaurant, handing his dishes off to a waiter instead of his best friend in his best friend’s spacious—and empty—new house.

Tyler’s dining room was beautiful. His living room was beautiful, his foyer was beautiful; every part of the house Josh had yet seen was beautiful, and meticulously curated. He knew Tyler had hired a decorator to furnish the inside after he signed the deed. Tyler would say it was because he has no taste, but Josh wondered if it was because he didn’t want to make it a home.

Beautiful as it was, a restaurant may still have been warmer. The single, fashionable overhead lamp that illuminated only the dining table felt like a spotlight, and when Josh peered into the living room and saw nothing but darkness, he imagined an audience in rows, watching him eat and maybe judging his form. 

Tyler turned on the sink with his back to Josh, rinsing scraps down the garbage disposal. A sense of melancholy radiated from his turned back, a feeling Josh wasn’t able to place. A lost-ness. Josh felt like a guest in a stranger’s home.

He pulled a towel off the handle of the oven, stainless steel like everything else, and joined Tyler at his side. “That was delicious, man. You wash, I’ll dry?”

Tyler laughed, a little huff of air out of his nose, and handed him a wet plate. “So domestic. It’s like we’re married.” 

“If you keep cooking like that, I’ll elope with you right now.” Josh slid the plate into a drying rack, and reached for another. He laughed. “Don’t you have a dishwasher?”

Tyler stepped back an inch and looked down at the appliance he was standing right next to, hands still wet and soapy. “Oh uh, yeah, but I haven’t used it yet. This place is taking a little getting used to.”

“It’s really nice, though.” Josh complimented, wiping off the prongs of a fork and setting it up to dry like a flower in a vase. “Really big. High ceilings, that’s nice.” 

“Yeah, I like it.” Tyler mumbled, drying off his hands. “Never had my own land before, didn’t think I’d have a house to put on it.”“Weird how things turn out.”  
“Yeah, weird.” 

As another silent interlude passed between them, Josh chewed over whether he should ask if Tyler was alright or not. It was a difficult conversation; sometimes half the battle was worming a straight answer from Tyler as he slipped between questions and confrontations like a bar of soap, and sometimes the other half was just working up the courage to roll the dice. 

“Tyler, are you o-“

“You know it’s so empty that I can hear my own footsteps down the hall? My feet echo on the floor.” Tyler cut Josh off, whether accidentally or not, it didn’t matter. He leaned against the counter by the small of his back, folding his arms over his chest in forced casualness. 

“Maybe you should get a dog.” As soon as they left his mouth, Josh flagged the words as the dumbest thing he’d said all night. Tyler seemed not to notice, or care.

“I thought this was what I wanted, you know? I thought this was what it was all about,” Tyler continued. Josh turned a chair out and sat, one hand picking absently at the textured wood of Tyler’s authentic reclaimed Brazilian cherry table, beautiful, and listened. “Independence, earning my freedom, breaking free from expectations, obligations-“ 

He ended with a sigh, pulling out another chair and taking a seat beside Josh gracefully, yet heavy and weighted like a sandbag. He watched where Josh’s fingers played with the wood.

“It can be, but maybe it’s just something missing-“ Josh offered, always genuine, always honest, always careful like winding through a minefield. 

“Yeah, something missing-“ Tyler echoed, face blank and unreadable, gaze unfocused.

“Maybe it’s like you said, and it’ll just take some getting used to,” Josh offered, but the advice tasted as stale in his mouth as it sounded in his ears. “Maybe you’re just not meant to live alone.”

“Maybe.” Tyler breathed. “Maybe I’m not. Maybe I’m not.” He repeated to himself from miles away, voice a tether to his drifting mind, and Josh, overtaken by concern, really was about to take him by the shoulders and rattle an answer out of him. 

No answer. Tyler leaned across the corner of the table so quickly that between the space of an in and an exhale Josh went from kissing, kissing, kissing, to loss when Tyler pulled back as suddenly as he went in. 

The table grated loudly across the floor as Tyler pushed it aside with his foot, springing from his chair and climbing into Josh’s lap, panting with exhilaration. He began to press kisses down Josh’s cheek to his neck to his ear, while Josh turned to a statue underneath him.

“Tyler.” Josh said simply, as though as he were just passively catching Tyler’s attention and there weren’t any soft lips or warm breaths involved.

Tyler hummed, nudging Josh’s head back with his own, tongue meeting heated skin as he ran his hands up firm muscles to broad shoulders and Josh fucking gasped. “Tyler.” He repeated sternly, surprised at the steadiness of his voice despite the disconnect from his mouth to brain, brain to body, body to mortal coil.

When Tyler’s hips twitched forward into Josh’s and he ignored him for the third time, Josh wound a hand tightly into his short hair and jerked his head back to see his face.Tyler’s eyes were lidded, glazed, lips slightly parted, expression unrecognizable. Josh has never seen him this wild before.

“What are you doing, Tyler?” Josh asked on a single breath, low and almost whispered, gentle as though he were asking from Tyler’s bedside.

“I need this,” Tyler rasped, “I need this.” 

He struggled against Josh’s hold and Josh immediately let go, letting Tyler’s head fall forward. “What’s ‘this’?”

“ _This_ ,” Tyler repeated, as though it explained it all. “You can’t say you never thought about it.” 

Josh was taken aback. What was he supposed to do, _lie?_ Of course he had. “I-I, I mean-“ Words failed him when Tyler began to nose at his jaw again. Josh felt his breath. He felt him inhale.

“Just let me.” Tyler mumbled in his ear. His arms wove back around Josh’s shoulders and locked behind his neck, drawing him into a tight hug. Josh would never think anything could feel this warm again, and Tyler would never think anything could be this comforting. 

“Okay.”

Humming contentedly, Tyler buried his face into Josh’s neck as far as he could, tightening his arms even more around him until one snaked up to curl into his hair, scratch along his scalp. Josh shuddered, Tyler pushed forward, and Josh quietly moaned.

His hands flew to the dip of Tyler’s back, assisting him. “Where do you wanna take this?” Josh asked lowly. Whether he meant location or limits, he didn’t even know himself.

“Bedroom’s upstairs.”  
Josh scooped him up without a word, standing swiftly and ignoring Tyler’s gasp of surprise and nails digging into his shoulders. He carried him down the hall, faces barely separated by an inch of shared air, pausing several times to dive in and connect their lips in more kisses Josh could not believe he was free to take. It was overwhelming. It was surreal. Had it not been for Tyler’s grounding body heat pressed flush against him chest to groin and Tyler’s noises of growing impatience with Josh’s leisurely trek to the bedroom, Josh would have doubted his own consciousness since the first kiss. 

Finally, Tyler broke free, tugging Josh in by his shirtfront for one more open-mouthed kiss before quietly declaring, “I can’t take this, this is taking too long,” and disappearing down the hall and up the stairs, Josh close on his heels with his heart pounding out of his chest. 

Tyler backed into the bedroom door, feeling it open behind him as his hand fisted roughly in the front of Josh’s shirt again, yanking them together and backing them into the dark room in a stumbling tango. When Tyler’s knees hit the end of the bed, Josh expected him to fall—instead, with an aggression Josh hadn’t expected, Tyler steered him around and pushed at his chest until Josh lost his balance, sinking into the downy pillowtop with a heavy _fwump_.

Tyler immediately crawled over him, bed dipping where his knees climbed on. He crowded over Josh where he lay prone, trying to control his breathing. “Is this okay?”

Josh pondered the many unexpected things that had happened to him just that night, but as he took in how naturally Tyler filled the role above him and how good he looked from this angle, Josh decided that Tyler’s dominance in the bedroom was not one of them. “Yeah.”

Tyler fell to his elbows, forearms braced on either side of Josh’s head, and trailed feather-light kisses from Josh’s neck to the juncture of his shoulder. “How about this?”

Drifting under, Josh allowed his thighs to fall open and Tyler to settle between. “Yeah, that’s-that’s fine.”

A purposeful, slow drag of their hips together allowed Josh to feel Tyler’s erection even through their clothes, and Josh’s blood turned viscous with arousal. “And this? Is this okay?” Tyler asked again, voice quiet and vibrating up from where his lips were pressed to Josh’s collarbone. 

Josh hated him. “I hate you,” he choked, attempt at humor falling short when Tyler pressed their crotches together in full unbroken contact and fell into a torturously slow grind. 

“Doesn’t sound like you hate me.” 

Josh’s hands settled on Tyler’s waist, slipping down and under his shirt. “Take it off me.” Tyler breathed, a centimeter away from Josh’s lips, forehead to forehead, nose to nose. 

There was no need to say it twice. Realizing how easy it was to simply obey, Josh tugged Tyler’s shirt up until it bunched under his arms. Tyler sat up on his knees to tear it over his head in two seconds before swooping over Josh once again.

Josh wanted to kiss again. He wanted to kiss and kiss, but he also wanted to feel and hear the breath leaving Tyler’s lips right above his own, nearly connected, just barely grazing, as he ran his fingers lightly from Tyler’s chest to his tummy to just above his waistband.

“What about these?” Josh asked. His fingers popped the button on Tyler’s jeans.

“Taking liberties?” Tyler responded, chuckling breathlessly, but the minute twitch forward his hips made gave him away.

Josh unzipped his fly quickly, shucking his pants midway down his thighs. He wanted to look, he wanted to see, but his head weighed a thousand pounds as it sunk into the pillow, and the hiss Tyler pulled through his teeth when Josh’s fingers slipped inside his boxers was enough.

Tyler collapsed over him, trapping Josh’s arm between their bodies like he couldn’t get close enough. Josh was reminded that he was still fully clothed as he felt the warmth of Tyler’s bare chest pressed to his. “Tyler, tell me what you want me to do.”

As if the words had brought him back to Earth, Tyler lifted his head from Josh’s neck and sat up once more, bracketed by Josh’s bent knees. He chewed the inside of his lip. Josh could see that his mind was made up, but words failed him.

Tyler rested his hands on Josh’s knees, running up his thighs generously as he spoke. “I could—I could, you know, be on top,” he spoke tentatively, before quickly adding, “If you want.” 

Josh nodded seriously, doe eyes locked onto Tyler’s and hands coming up to gently cover his wrists. “If that’s what you want.”

“I-yeah. I just thought—yes. Yeah, l just need to get like, stuff, to prep you, and-” As Tyler made to get up, Josh wondered why he suddenly seemed so nervous. All at once, something clicked. 

Josh quickly tightened his hands over Tyler’s wrists, holding him in place. Swinging for the fences, he yanked Tyler down to brace himself on his forearms with a surprised noise. “Or,” Josh began, “I can flip you over right now and fuck you until you’re shaking.”  
Tyler audibly moaned. Josh praised his own intuition, and pressed on. “Would you like that?” He muttered lowly, nosing into Tyler’s hair, whispering in his ear. “Will you let me fuck you, Ty?”

Too keyed up to speak, Tyler nodded into the pillow next to Josh’s head, the one his face was pressed into. “Is that a yes?” Josh asked. “Yeah,” Tyler agreed, something almost silent, meek and strained. 

As far as Josh was concerned, teasing was over. Hands on Tyler’s sides, he pushed them over as Tyler rolled onto his back, going easily. Josh grabbed his shirt collar from the tag and deftly shed it to fall somewhere out of sight. Tyler shamelessly stared.

“You’re so.” He didn’t bother finishing the thought. His hands reaching up to trail Josh’s broad chest and thumb his nipples said plenty. 

Josh shivered. “So are you.” 

Tyler smiled. Josh smiled. The moment passed like a soap bubble, gentle and fleeting. 

Josh walked backwards on his knees to pull Tyler’s jeans off the rest of the way as his feet kicked them to the floor. Next came his boxers, and another soft intake of breath from Tyler as he found himself fully exposed and yet, somehow, invulnerable.

Josh moved closer to Tyler again and rested his hands on his knees. It’s comforting, warm, weighted. Goosebumps prickled on Tyler’s skin as Josh ran his palms down the tops of Tyler’s thighs to his sharp hipbones. His middle heaved. 

Still frozen in time, Josh is jolted out when Tyler sat up on his elbows suddenly, leaning over as far as he can stretch to fish something out of the nightstand drawer. “I have lube,” He withdrew a small bottle. He hesitated, looking at Josh guiltily. “But I don’t have condoms. Do you?”

Josh closed his eyes and dropped his chin to his chest with a sigh. “No.” He made to get up. “But I can run out and get some.” 

Hopping off the bed, Josh plucked his shirt off the floor.

“Josh.” Tyler said quietly. Josh turned his shirt the right way out.

“ _Josh_.” He repeated, louder. Finally catching Josh’s attention, he looked over. Tyler was still propped up on his elbows, and he looked absolutely delicious. Completely naked, one knee bent and propped up, the other leg flat and hanging off the end of the bed, visibly hard and Josh salivated.

He didn’t register his heart racing until Tyler quietly suggested, “We don’t need a condom,” and Josh virtually flew into cardiac arrest.

“You sure?” He asked, ever the gentleman.

Tyler chewed his lip again, already red and raw, and nodded. “I’m clean, are you?”

“Yeah.” Josh dropped his shirt and unbuttoned his jeans, pushing them off and stepping out. He wanted to climb back over Tyler and touch him _everywhere_ , and that’s what he did.

Leaning over Tyler, Josh connected their lips so smoothly it felt as though they were drawn together like magnets. His tongue gently found Tyler’s, and his hand trailed down Tyler’s arm to take the bottle from his hand. 

Breaking apart, Josh stood once again. He kneeled at the foot of the bed, wrapping strong forearms around Tyler’s upper thighs and tugging him down the sheets. Tyler squeaked.

“Cool?” Josh checked. 

“Yeah, cool.”

Josh squirted a small dollop of lube onto his fingers. He silently hoped the slick sound didn’t sound as loud to Tyler as it did to him, but his doubts were unfounded; Tyler, with his head back and panting to the ceiling, seemed too distracted to register anything.

Josh turned his head to softly kiss the inside of Tyler’s knee. His clean hand ran up and down Tyler’s leg, from his hip to his knee and down again, like he was soothing a horse. He sought to make Tyler feel as cared for as possible, as comfortable as he could, especially when a finger found his entrance.

Trusting his instincts, Josh slid in his first finger to the tune of Tyler’s whine as he nibbled on the skin of his inner thigh. When Tyler’s hips twitched down in sync, Josh wondered if it was instinct or practice.

Crooking his finger, Josh felt around the tight, worryingly tight, heat, and couldn’t believe he was really getting to touch Tyler like this. From the inside out, more intimate than he’d ever felt. 

Tyler hummed. Josh added another, working him open. He dipped his head and lightly, experimentally, licked up the underside of Tyler’s cock where it rested against his stomach.

Immediate results. Tyler whined softly. Josh placed a kiss just under his head as he scissored his fingers, a distraction. Tyler gasped. 

Something warm closed over the hand on Tyler’s hip and Josh’s eyes flicked up. Tyler rubbed his thumb over the back of his hand. “I’m good now.” He managed. “You can go ahead.” 

Josh’s stomach somersaulted. “You’re ready?” He echoed.

Tyler nodded, hair wild, eyes wilder. His hand twitched over Josh’s as he pulled his fingers out. 

He stood, climbed back, and undid his belt and fly as quickly as he could without trying to seem too eager. It was pointless; Josh _was_ eager, he _wanted_ this. Oh god, did he want this. From the nearly crazed look in Tyler’s hooded eyes to the impatient way he curled his toes, Josh knew he wasn’t the only one. 

“How do you like it?” Josh asked. It felt okay to ask. He may not have, had it been with another partner, in different circumstances, but this felt fine. 

Tyler deliberated as Josh slicked himself up, one hand squeezed tightly at the base under a patch of trimmed dark hair. “Hard, maybe. I don’t really know.” 

Josh understood. “Hard, like rough?” He ducked his head and he lined himself up, pushing in steadily with a hand back on Tyler’s knee, where it belonged.

Tyler exhaled hollowly as Josh pushed on, slowly, but firmly. “Yeah.” 

Josh wrestled with the urge to close his eyes as his thighs connected with Tyler’s when he bottomed out. “Rough, like—“ He punctuated his question by grabbing Tyler’s thighs, and in one swift motion, pulled out a few inches and drove back in, yanking Tyler further down the already crumpled sheets. 

“Ah fuck,” Tyler swore, words piercing Josh to his core. “Rough like that. Rough like that.” 

It was more than easy for Josh to oblige him. What was difficult was staving off the urge to finish in 30 seconds with the way every lewd, involuntary noise that fell from Tyler’s lips and dribbled down his chin went straight to Josh’s cock as he railed him, bending Tyler’s lean body like a folding chair. 

“Wait. Wait wait—“ Josh panted. He leaned over as far as he could while still bracing himself with an arm, and hitched Tyler’s leg up high and tight around his waist. “How about like that? How does that feel?” 

Every muscle in Tyler’s neck was as tight as a bowstring. Josh could see it, in perfect color and detail, the beautiful column of skin bared to him as Tyler’s head was thrown back in ecstatic agony. Josh could see his jaw work. “Good.” 

Not good enough. Josh moved up higher, easily hoisting both of Tyler’s legs over his shoulders, crowding him close enough to latch onto his neck. Which he did. 

“What about this?” He forced. The angle had Josh deeper than ever, and he picked back up his punishing rhythm as though he’d never lost it. 

Pleasure licked at his gut like flames at his heels, and Josh found himself groaning and panting, muffled by Tyler’s salty, smooth skin at his lips. 

Tyler still, sounded closer. “Good, good, good.” He sobbed. His hands worked frantically; one was repeatedly bunching and tugging at the sheets like pulling up fistfuls of grass, the other had curled around the back of Josh’s head, ruffling and petting his hair. It was surprisingly gentle. Josh wished it wasn’t.

Josh groaned, Tyler groaned, the bed frame groaned. The fitted sheet sprang off the corner. 

Something was missing. “Touch yourself,” Josh spoke into Tyler’s neck, feeling the vibrations more than hearing. “You can touch yourself.” 

Gentle fingers continued to rake through Josh’s hair. “I’ll, mmm, I’ll finish too soon.”

Josh moved to the other side of Tyler’s neck, kissing over his Adam’s apple as he did. “Tyler, I’m going to come in literally a minute.” He whispered. The time for pretense was long over.

Having lost the battle against his eyelids, Josh didn’t see Tyler’s hand release the sheets and worm between them. He did feel it, however. He felt Tyler’s knuckles brush his abs with each quick pass. 

Not enough time. There was not enough time. Josh lifted his head, uncurled himself from over Tyler, straightened back to kneeling. “I should pull out.” 

Legs clamped tightly around his hips. Tyler continued to push back, grind on him, and Josh watched his hand work himself over furiously, pausing to swipe pearls of precum that bubbled nonstop from his tip. He wanted to be the one to do that for him. Perhaps next time. 

“I’m close. Just don’t stop now.” Tyler pled. His abs clenched. His back arched. 

There still wasn’t enough time. Josh couldn’t break from the pressure of Tyler’s legs around him, holding him in place.

“Tyler,” Josh said.

“Tyler,” Josh begged.

_”Tyler—“_ Josh whined. His fingers dug into Tyler’s thighs and his head dropped forward, weighted. He moaned and moaned, noises flowing freely, unencumbered. 

Tyler’s toes curled so tightly his feet cramped as he felt Josh coming inside him, still whining, still trembling. He stared as Josh fell apart above him, an adonis crumbled. 

He was still staring when Josh lifted his head blearily, noticing how Tyler hadn’t stopped jerking himself off, fast and hard. Nudging his hand out of the way with his own, it took Josh only a few twists of his wrist before Tyler was digging his nails into his forearm and coming breathily. 

Josh released him and brought the hand that was around his forearm to his lips, tenderly kissing his knuckles. A wave of affection washed over Tyler, warmth permeating to his bones so completely he wondered if anything would ever feel this sweet again. 

“I’m s—“ Josh bit the tail off his apology as he slid out of Tyler, leaving a mess. Tyler made a face. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Tyler assured. “It feels weird.” 

Josh couldn’t help himself. He bent over to kiss the side of Tyler’s temple. “Which bathroom should I use?” 

“Door on the left.” Tyler sat halfway up before Josh stopped, still stark naked, and pointed at him like a puppy in training. 

“Stay there.” He picked his boxers up from the floor. “I’ll be right back, stay.” The words were firm, but Josh’s smiling face, soft eyes, were not. 

Tyler dropped back onto the sheets with a sigh. Water ran from the bathroom.

“You have really nice sinks,” Josh called, “Good water pressure.” 

A smiling face appeared in the doorway a moment later, folding a small towel. “I mean it,” Josh added, sitting on the bed beside Tyler, who turned his head to face him. “You have a beautiful home.” 

“Would you, I mean, would you like to see more? Stay for breakfast,” Tyler invited as Josh lightly wiped his stomach. His eyes sought Josh’s own, imploring. 

Josh nodded. “Sure.” 

“Then after that, stay for dinner.” Tyler smiled. Josh smiled. The moment passed.

“I’d like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote half of this over a nonfat vanilla latte in the middle of the day 
> 
> I am also [here](http://chalupacabras.tumblr.com)


End file.
